Butch Miller, the Republican President pro tempore of the Georgia state Senate, is getting blowback after he twisted a tax policy question into what some see as a racist dogwhistle.
Miller, who is running to be the GOP nominee for Lt. Governor, was asked a question about tax policy. His answer seemingly had nothing to do with taxes: “we need to make sure that we’re attracting people in Georgia that do think like us, and if they don’t think like us they need to assimilate into our values and our culture.”
The Georgia Republican was speaking in an interview with BKP Politics on the local streaming website FYN TV. Miller was asked: “what about the tax structure for the people of Georgia? I know your opponent has talked about eliminating personal, you know tax in Georgia, what about the tax structure for the people in Georgia?”
“Let’s take that,” Sen. Miller replied. “That’s a big subject and you’ve covered a lot again, you’ve covered a lot of ground I appreciate that. The fact of the matter is we have attracted many people to, to the state of Georgia, they don’t think like us, we need to make sure that we’re attracting people in Georgia that do think like us, and if they don’t think like us they need to assimilate into our values and our culture.”
“If you don’t make it, mine it, or grow it, it’s hard to make a living doing it. So we can’t make a living by cutting each other’s grass and doing each other’s laundry. That’s just a fact. So, in terms of our tax structure and eliminate basically eliminated the income tax for the, for the house, the household income tax the individual income tax, you will see multiple pieces of legislation introduced to that effect, and I’ll be a part of that.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein was first to flag Miller’s comments. Here’s how people are responding.